Brownville woman charged in connection with teen party

BROWNVILLE, Maine — A local woman who hosted a two-night slumber party last week for young girls was arrested around midnight Thursday for allegedly providing them alcohol, marijuana and the prescription drug Klonopin, a drug typically provided for panic disorders, police said.

Tanya Donnelly, 36, was arrested and charged with two felony counts of furnishing a scheduled drug — one for marijuana and the other for the prescription drug — furnishing a place for a minor to consume alcohol, furnishing alcohol to a minor, and endangering the welfare of a child, according to Brownville Police Chief Nick Clukey. She was taken to the Piscataquis County Jail, where she posted $300 cash bail and was released.

Donnelly is expected to make her initial court appearance on May 23 in Dover-Foxcroft District Court.

Clukey said his department received a grant this year to combat underage drinking. Earlier on Thursday, officers had attended a presentation by the Piscataquis Public Health Council on the topic ‘’Parents who host the most, lose the most,’’ he said.

The party, attended by 12- and 13-year-old girls, was held Thursday and Friday of last week at homes owned by Donnelly on Lincoln Street and Van Horne Avenue, but it wasn’t until March 31 that one of the girls told her parents about it, Clukey said. When one of the parents reported the party, Clukey said, he launched an investigation that continued into the early hours of Friday. Evidence was seized during a consent search of Donnelly’s homes, he said.